By Mario B. Casayuran
Sen. Loren B. Legarda, chairperson of the Senate Finance Committee, said yesterday that all public school teachers would receive an additional P1,000 in their cash or chalk allowance this year.
Loren said that an additional P770 million was allocated in the Department of Education’s P555-billion budget to increase the annual chalk allowance of public school teachers from P2,500 to P3,500 each.
She said this is good news for teachers because additional allowance means they could purchase more of what they need to be more effective in teaching.
“Now they have additional P1,000 to purchase classroom supplies like chalk, markers, paper, erasers, and other materials,” she explained.
“We wanted to give them more but this is what the 2018 budget can provide as of now. Hopefully, for the 2019 budget, we will be able to give P5,000 for annual chalk allowance per teacher. The DepEd should already include the necessary amount in their proposed budget,” she added.